Бесстрастие

Question. What is human dispassion? Answer. Dispassion does not consist in not feeling passions, but in not accepting them into oneself. As a result of many and various virtues, obvious and hidden, acquired by the saints, passions have become weak in them, and cannot easily rise up in the soul: and the mind does not need to constantly be attentive to them; because at all times he is filled with his thoughts as a result of reflection and conversation about the best images that are consciously aroused in the mind. And as soon as passions begin to be aroused, the mind is suddenly delighted by the approach to them with some understanding that has entered the mind, and the passions, as Blessed Mark said, remain in it as if idle. The mind, by the grace of God, performing virtuous deeds and approaching knowledge, feels little of what constitutes the bad (passionate) and unreasonable part of the soul. For knowledge delights him in height and alienates him from everything in the world. And because of the integrity of the saints and the subtlety, flexibility and sharpness of their minds, as well as because of their feat, their mind is purified and turns out to be enlightened, according to the dryness of their flesh. And, as a result of teaching them silence and a long stay in it, the inner is easily and quickly given to everyone and leads to delight in contemplation. At the same time, they usually abound in contemplations, and their minds never lack objects of understanding, and they are never without something that produces the fruit of the spirit in them. Long-term practice erases the memories in their hearts, which arouse passions in the soul, and the power of the devil’s power is abolished. For when the soul does not become friends with the passions by thinking about them, then, since it is occupied with other concerns, the power of the passions cannot hold its spiritual feelings in its claws.